Wiktionary

intention

See also: Intention

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English entencioun, intention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Compare intent.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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intention (countable and uncountable, plural intentions)

  1. A course of action that a person intends to follow.
    My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.
    It’s easy to promise anything when you have no intention of fulfilling any of it.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intention
    • a. 1784, attributed to Samuel Johnson
      Hell is paved with good intentions.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:
      It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”
    • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎[1], archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
      Zevala was ablaze, and all the insurgents — as they called themselves — were scurrying about like chickens with their heads cut off. There was talk of an attack. A second invading force. Perhaps the Foundation. Perhaps something worse.

      That something worse had every intention of worsening further still. There were many, many more things to burn before she and her sister were alone on the cliffside.

  2. The goal or purpose.
    The intention of this legislation is to boost the economy.
    • 2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:
      Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.
  3. (obsolete) Tension; straining, stretching.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
      , I.iii.3:
      cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  4. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object or a purpose (an intent); closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
    • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 19:
      it is attention : when the mind with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, considers it on all sides, and will not be called off by the ordinary solicitation of other ideas, it is that we call intention or study
  5. (obsolete) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  6. (obsolete) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  7. (medicine) The process of the healing of a wound.
    • 2007, Carie Ann Braun, Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health, page 49:
      When healing occurs by primary intention, the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “intention”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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intention (third-person singular simple present intentions, present participle intentioning, simple past and past participle intentioned)

  1. To intend.

Translations

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References

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Finnish

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Noun

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intention

  1. genitive singular of intentio

French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle French entention, from Old French entencion, borrowed from Latin intentiōnem. Respelled intention in Middle French to more closely match the Classical Latin form.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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intention f (plural intentions)

  1. intention
    dans l’intention de devenir roi
    with the intention of becoming king
    prêter des intentions à quelqu’un
    to accuse someone of intentions ("motives")

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Middle French

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Noun

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intention f (plural intentions)

  1. Alternative form of entention

Swedish

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Noun

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intention c

  1. (often in the plural) an intention (planned course of action)
    goda/onda/oklara intentioner
    good/evil/unclear intentions

Declension

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Declension of intention
nominative genitive
singular indefinite intention intentions
definite intentionen intentionens
plural indefinite intentioner intentioners
definite intentionerna intentionernas

See also

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  • avsikt (more idiomatic for "it was not my intention" and the like)

References

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